Kajiado Deputy Governor, Martin Moshisho, has said deforestation in the county is the cause of prolonged drought and suffering of pastoralists.
Moshisho at the same time, in a telephone interview, said while the County Government is under pressure to regulate charcoal trade and rampant felling of trees, law enforcement agencies must be fully engaged in the exercise.
He was responding to several calls by elected leaders and the local people urging the governor to crack the whip on corrupt law enforcement officers allegedly working with cartels in illegal logging of trees and burning of charcoal.
Moshisho said legislation alone cannot alleviate the problem and urged Kajiado residents to be personally responsible and stop cutting down trees as they stand to lose if the county turns into a desert.
Moshisho said the heightened drought that is sweeping across the county each year has been caused by illegal cutting down of trees, and appealed to the people of Kajiado to plant trees during this raining season.
.He announced that the county government has set aside Sh40million for the development of selected farms meant for the production of hay for livestock farmers.
One of the farms identified for such development, Moshisho said, is the 1, 850 acre land recently recovered from Tana and Athi Development authority in Emali, whose development has started in earnest.